by Vi Lily
He knew he really needed to quit letting his thoughts go down a road they didn’t need to be traveling. There was no way he was going to get into a relationship with her — or with anyone. Not now, not when he was so close to graduation and to getting off on his own.
The thought of graduation made him cringe as he remembered his grades and his need for help. He glanced at Ari then and wondered if she’d be able to help him with his English classes. As much as he hated to ask for help, she would be the perfect solution — it would help her feel less like a leech, which he knew she did; and it she was probably the only person he could trust not to tell anyone of his embarrassing problem.
Steve walked back into the living room and Alex finished off his burritos and turned his head to Ari. She’d barely eaten half of hers, but it was better than the few bites she’d managed before. It wouldn’t take long for her to start gaining weight, once she got her stomach stretched.
“Um, I have a, uh, a favor to ask,” he murmured as he rolled his soda can between his hands. He was embarrassed to ask and knew his face was probably as red as hers had been at Steve’s stupid comment.
“Of course!” she said with too much enthusiasm. Alex’s lips twitched at that. “What can I help with?”
“Well, I guess I should ask you first if you’re any good at English,” he said as he glanced at her. The shock on her face told him that wasn’t what she was expecting. She probably thought he was going to ask her to help clean the house or something. As if…
“Oh, um, yeah, I am actually. It’s one of my better subjects.”
He breathed out a sigh of relief, then snorted. “It ain’t one of mine,” he admitted. “That’s what I was, uh, wondering, if maybe you could help me. I’m about to fail Language Arts.”
“Oh no,” she breathed. “Yeah, of course I can help you! Let’s feed Ogre and then you can get your tablet and we’ll go over whatever it is you need help with.”
His lips twitched again as his face heated even more. “All of it. I need help with all of it.”
Chapter 2
A fter Ogre was fed and sleeping contentedly on the ottoman by the fire and Steve was watching the second game in the tournament Alex had been watching earlier, he carried Ari back up the stairs to his room. Well, it was her room now.
He placed her in the center of the bed so she was sitting against the headboard, then he went to his dresser and got his school tablet and sat back down beside her. Despite his intense embarrassment over what he felt like was his stupidity, another weird feeling of rightness came over him then and he shoved it aside.
Ari looked over his assignments and surprisingly, she quickly realized what his problem was. It was as he thought; he was dyslexic.
“You would think someone woulda noticed by now,” he grumbled. “I mean, I’m about to graduate and in all these years and through all the schools I’ve been to, no one coulda said, ‘Hey, Alex needs some extra help with his reading’?”
Ari hadn’t even commented, but just taught him some tricks to use to sort out the letters and numbers. When he asked her how she knew about dyslexia, she’d admitted she’d had the same problem.
After that, he totally relaxed his guard with her.
He’d managed to get almost caught up with his English assignments by mid-afternoon, thanks to Ari’s help. He then went downstairs to check on Ogre and to make them some lunch, despite Ari’s insistence that she wasn’t hungry.
Steve was nowhere to be found and Alex assumed he was in his room. There was no way he’d go out in the snow; he’d only been in the northeast for the past few months, having lived in California after the family left Texas. The guy definitely couldn’t drive in the snow.
Ogre seemed a little squirmy, so Alex picked him up after shushing his growls and carried him to the back porch. It was covered, so at least there wasn’t any snow. The dog looked up at him in question, but Alex just motioned to him to do his business.
“Just do what ya gotta do, boy. I gotta hose I can wash it off with.” Surprisingly, the dog seemed to understand, and he proceeded to mark his territory.
The dog seemed fine to walk, so Alex led the way back into the living room. Ogre climbed back up on the ottoman of his own accord, which made Alex want to smile. He wished Ari would make herself at home like that.
After heating up some leftover hamburger casserole stuff Steve made, he gave it to Ogre, then made ham and swiss sandwiches, grabbed some sodas and chips, and headed back upstairs. He paused outside of his room, though, when he heard voices.
“—he had it a lot worse than me,” his brother said. “Our father was determined to beat any humor outta him.”
Ari murmured something he couldn’t hear then.
“No, he used to be a happy kid. I think that’s why Dad was so horrible to him. He couldn’t stand to see anyone happy, since he was so miserable himself. I haven’t seen Alex smile in years, not since Dad got a hold of him.”
Alex was pissed they were talking about him, but he realized he was angrier that Steve was in the room alone with Ari. He made a noise and then walked in. Ari’s face was beet red and Steve was grinning at him.
“Hope you like ham,” he told her as he handed the plate to her. She stared at the four sandwiches in horror and he smirked.
“I cut one of them in half for you,” he said and moved to sit next to her, kicking at Steve, who was sprawled across the foot of the bed. His brother didn’t take the hint, and even reached over to nab one of the halves of her sandwich. Alex growled out a protest, but Ari hurried to say there was no way she’d eat the whole sandwich.
They ate in silence for a few minutes, then Ari spoke. “I, uh, I still need to get my tablet and my clothes. I know you said I wasn’t going to school this week, but I still need my tablet so I don’t get behind.”
Alex frowned at her. “Told you I’d get you new stuff.” Steve’s head whipped to him at that comment, but he ignored his brother. It was none of his business what he chose to buy for Ari.
“I know you said that,” Ari said in a small voice, “but I have a pre-calculus assignment that’s due tomorrow. I don’t think they’ll excuse that, since I already got an extension from Mr. Nguyen.”
Alex’s eyebrow rose at that. “Having trouble in math?” She nodded.
“Yeah, I hate it,” she laughed. “I suck at it.”
Steve reached over and patted her knee and Alex had to fight not to kick him in the face for daring to touch her.
“Math was one of my best subjects. I’ll be glad to help you,” he offered with a wink. Alex rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, one of your ‘best subjects’ meant that you got D’s instead of F’s.” He looked at Ari. “I’ll help you. It is one of my better subjects.” He grunted. “As long as there aren’t word problems anyway.”
Her eyebrows rose and he could tell she had a question, but she glanced at Steve then and instead of asking, she took a bite of her sandwich. Steve apparently decided he’d had enough company then and pushed off the bed.
“Seizure laters,” he joked as he walked out. Once he was gone, Ari looked at Alex.
“What?” he asked when she didn’t say anything.
“You, uh, don’t have problems with math… I mean, the numbers getting jumbled?”
Alex shook his head. “I don’t usually have much trouble with numbers, but I use the ‘read aloud’ option on the tablet to double-check my stuff. It works for the English stuff too, for reading, but it doesn’t help much with the writing.”
She nodded. “Makes sense.”
After lunch, Ari wanted a shower, so Alex unwrapped her bandage, and gave her the instruction to call him when she was done so he could rewrap her. He then settled back on the bed and turned on the television. The tournament was over, so he put it on motocross instead. His eyes quickly grew heavy though, and he fell fast asleep.
“Alex… Alex…”
A wet and naked Ari walked to him across a white sand beach, calling his
name. Little rivulets of water ran over her high breasts, sliding down her torso where he wanted his mouth to be. She was beautiful, devastatingly so. And she was his…
“Alex, wake up.” His eyes opened slowly and with a bit of horror, he realized he was sporting a tent in his sweats and Ari was staring at his crotch with her own horror. He cleared his throat and crossed his legs to try to hide it.
Damn… that was the most erotic dream he’d ever had, and he couldn’t believe he’d dreamed of the tiny, and very breakable, girl in front of him like that. He had to remind himself that he did not feel like that about her.
He looked back at her to see what was wrong. His eyes widened as they traveled over her and realized she was only wearing a towel that did little to hide her body, the body that wasn’t much to look at as thin as she was, but Alex knew after a few weeks of eating good and she’d fill right out.
And then he’d really be in trouble.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as he pushed himself up, still keeping his legs crossed as he willed his arousal to go down. Seeing her standing there in hardly anything wasn’t helping the situation.
She was clutching the towel at her boobs and standing a good two feet away from the bed. He didn’t blame her; it was never a good idea to be near him when you woke him up. Too often, he’d come up swinging, which she learned just the day before. He still shuddered to think how he could have hurt her.
“Nothing,” she answered, the color high on her cheeks, “you, uh, just said to tell you when I was ready to be wrapped again, but I, um, well I was wondering if you had something else I could wear. Something clean…”
Alex frowned for a second, knowing darned well the clothes he’d given her weren’t dirty since she hadn’t done anything. But he also remembered that she’d admitted that she hadn’t had any utilities in a long time, which meant clean clothes were yet another luxury she’d been denied.
“Sure,” he said as he rolled toward the opposite end of the bed, keeping his back to her. His arousal was starting to go down finally, but still…
He’d taken all his clothes to one of the other bedrooms when he’d given her his, so he went next door and started digging through his drawers. He frowned when he realized that he’d given her the only pair of shorts that would fit her. He went to Steve’s room and knocked.
It took three times to get his brother to open the door and when he did, Alex was assaulted with the smell of melting plastic wrap. Idiot’s been smoking crack.
Sure enough, his pupils were dilated and he was scratching at his arm and bouncing in place. Alex fought back the desire to punch his brother in the face. They’d already talked about his drug use in the house.
He sighed and gave Steve a look that said, “I know what you’ve been doing.” But instead of voicing it, he asked him for some clothes that might fit Ari. Steve was big by most male standards but was still a lot smaller than Alex.
His brother jumped at the request, happy to be of assistance. The problem was, though, he was too agitated to be much use as he yanked one thing after another out of the drawers, making a big mess. After about ten minutes, Alex shoved him out of the way.
“Let me find something,” he muttered.
Surprisingly, Steve had some girls’ clothes in his drawers. Alex pulled out a pair of those stretchy type pants all the girls like to wear and looked at his brother with a raised brow.
“Something you wanna tell me, bro?”
Steve laughed. “Those are… uh, what the heck was her name? You know, that chick I met at… where was it?” He waved his hand. “I don’t know. Just take them. Should be some shirts in there. Oh, maybe some shoes too!”
He trotted toward the closet and Alex frowned after him. It wasn’t that often that Steve brought friends over, simply because Alex forbid it. He didn’t want to risk Steve’s druggie friends stealing their mom’s stuff. He must have been bringing people in when he was at school.
Alex made a note to install some security cameras. One more screw-up from Steve, and his brother was out of there.
Once he had several shirts, the stretchy pants, a pair of jeans and even some panties — which, thankfully, were miraculously clean — Alex went back to the master bedroom.
Ari, like he had before, had fallen asleep. She’d curled into a ball on top of the covers and looked like she was cold. He noticed that he could see… everything… from the position she was in, and he diverted his eyes, feeling like a perv again.
“Ari, wake up,” he told her as he gently shook her shoulder. He frowned when he saw a few more scars on her back he hadn’t noticed before. They were clean slices in a straight line from her right shoulder toward her spine, like from a sharp knife.
Her brother definitely needed to die.
“Hmmm?” she murmured and rubbed her eyes as she turned, then winced at the pain from the action. She pushed herself up to a sitting position and didn’t seem to notice that the towel had gapped open, baring her completely.
Alex ran a hand over his jaw as he tried not to stare. Not a perv. Not a perv. It dawned on him that they must both be pretty tired to fall asleep so easily and deeply in just a few minutes.
He turned away to pick up the wrap she’d placed on the nightstand. “I brought you some clothes so we can wrap you again.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed and he wondered if she’d noticed her lack of coverage. “Um, yeah, let me just go get dressed and then you can wrap me.”
He handed her the clothes and almost smiled at the surprise on her face when he handed her girls’ clothes. “Turns out, Steve had some chick’s stuff in his room. They’re clean, so no need to worry about, uh, bugs or anything.”
Ari visibly shuddered at that, then laughed, obviously thrilled to have clothes that would fit her better. She pushed off the bed and took the clothes, making her way to the bathroom.
“I’ll be right out!”
Once she came back out and he’d wrapped her back up, he told her that he’d buy her some clothes after school the next day. She asked if she could go with him, and he’d grimaced slightly at that.
He didn’t want people seeing them together, not when her brother was looking to sell her. The last thing he wanted was for word to get back to Devon that Ari was staying with him, because the jerk would probably show up at the door when Alex wasn’t home and take her. Or show up when Alex was there and then he’d have to kill the guy.
Her face fell, probably reading him wrong, thinking he didn’t want to be seen with her for the wrong reason.
“Yeah,” he said quickly, “if the storm lets up, we can go to Clemens and shop there. Get you whatever you need.”
There was less chance of being seen by someone he knew in Clemens, at least.
The grateful look she gave him then was bad, very bad. Because it meant that he’d do anything, give her anything, to see it on her face again.
Alex knew right then and there he was screwed.
Chapter 3
T HE NEXT WEEK flew by. Alex was busy with school, wrestling practice and getting ready for the last match of the season coming up on Friday, before the State finals. Athole Academy was going to the finals, for sure, and Alex knew it was because of him. He wasn’t vain about it, but it was a fact.
Ari was getting a lot better, but she still needed the wrap. Doc had said it would take a good six weeks for her to heal completely.
The first few days he’d rushed home during his lunch hour to check on her and to make sure she was eating. But Steve had assured him that he was keeping an eye on her — and he was behaving, so Alex had relaxed his guard a bit.
She’d kept up with her schoolwork thanks to the new tablet he’d paid for and had been thrilled when he brought home two new school uniforms. And when they’d gone to Clemens to buy her some regular clothes, Alex had insisted she buy some new shoes. Of course, she’d argued and spit like a cornered alley cat, but he’d won and she now had six pairs of new shoes and boots.
Ari was like a
new person now. She seemed to be a lot more relaxed and comfortable in her new home. Both Alex and Steve had made sure to keep saying things like “your bedroom,” “your bathroom,” or “our kitchen,” so that she’d get it, get the idea that they considered it her home too.
Hell, as far as Alex was concerned, it was more Ari’s home than Steve’s. His mom had made it clear that she didn’t want her oldest living there, but she’d never said anything about Alex’s friends. Maybe because she assumed he wouldn’t make any.
Which wasn’t a stretch. Alex wasn’t outgoing or friendly. He’d had that beaten out of him at an early age too, along with his humor.
Vato had started at Athole and the dude had been hounding him every day, asking how Ari was. It ticked Alex off to the point he was debating risking expulsion just for the satisfaction of punching the guys’ lights out. Of course, Vato would give him a run for his money since he was nearly at a pro level for MMA.
Instead of a bloody brawl in the Academy’s halls, Alex had finally just asked the guy to come over for dinner Friday night so he could see her himself. He told Ari he’d pick up pizzas and wings on his way home.
The chick had turned into Donna Domestic and had been making dinner every night. Alex had to admit it was nice having a homecooked meal, but he figured she needed a break on weekends at least.
Hell, maybe he was becoming pussy whipped too.
He was pissed to see Vato’s Jeep already in the drive when he got home. Alex had told the guy six, but it was only five thirty. He hadn’t had a chance to warn Ari that he was coming over.
And he made a mental note to buy her a cellphone over the weekend.
Alex walked into the kitchen through the garage and frowned when he heard male laughter and a girly squeal, followed by a moan. What the hell? He dropped the food on the island and rushed into the living room.
Ari was sitting next to Vato on the sofa, and he was turned to her, a concerned look on his face. Ari was pale, which Alex knew meant she’d done something to hurt her ribs. He had half a mind to put her in a straitjacket until she healed.